Easily the best Sonic game I've played. Great interconnected levels, fantastic visuals, very good gameplay with ACTUALLY good special stages, two incredible OSTs, etc. This game embodies all of the aspects of Sonic I liked as an outsider looking in, and all the aspects I liked of 1 and 2 while mostly flushing out the trash.

My only complaints are that the bosses fall flat and that I wish the levels had more interactivity ala Marble Zone from Sonic 1, but it's fine. Its level design is so much better than 2's.

If you're like me and Sonic games just never clicked, you need to try this game out.